U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Gainesville, addressed members of the House Energy and Commerce committee Tuesday on the House floor as members of the GOP caucus continue to voice their displeasure with a failure to act on oil drilling before adjourning for a six-week recess.

Deal, who was in the 9th District last week for a series of town meetings, returned to Capitol Hill this week.

"I thought Congress should have stayed in session until we could have a vote on whether to allow Americans to enhance our own energy capacity through environmentally sound drilling and exploration of our own natural resources," Deal said. "I voted against adjourning for recess. I was unfortunately in the minority on that vote."

The Republican House members have continued a daily vigil on the House floor in protest of the Democrats’ decision to leave Washington without acting on bills involving offshore drilling and drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.

"Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi has imposed on her Democratic colleagues an isolationist position, and I believe that a growing consensus among the American people will eventually make that extremist position unsustainable," Deal said Tuesday.

"The House of Representatives is the ‘People’s House’ and as such, the people should have a say in this House. This is why as representatives of the people, my Republican colleagues and I will continue to fight until we get a straight up or down vote on a truly balanced approach which allows us to become energy independent."

Congress adjourned at the end of July and will not go back into session until mid-September.

Deal was joined later at a news conference by other Republicans including Reps. Sam Graves, R-Mo., and Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich.